House GOP Copenhagen bound

House Republicans are preparing for a trip to Copenhagen and looking to derail Democratic efforts to negotiate an international climate agreement.

About a half-dozen Republicans will make the trip to Denmark to oppose plans for cap-and-trade legislation, express their discontent with the scientific community that researches climate change and call for the United Nations to halt any negotiations until the academic scandal known as “Climategate” is resolved.

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At least Texas Rep. Joe Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, along with Republican Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, Darrell Issa of California and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee are making the trip.

House Republican leaders Tuesday laid out their plans for the U.N. climate conference, which will be to essentially buck all Democratic climate-change platforms.

Republicans plan to highlight the leaked e-mails that allegedly show countervailing research was suppressed to undermine the theory of climate change. And they are arguing that Democratic emissions trading “cap and trade” legislation does not have the widespread support of the American people.

“In the worst recession in 26 years, in the midst of an academic scandal and questionable science revealed in ‘Climategate’ and in the absence of a national consensus about policies that would bear upon the category known as climate change, we gather here to say, Mr. President, don’t make promises in Copenhagen that we cant keep,” said House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana.

President Barack Obama, Pence added, should refrain from negotiating treaties “in the absence of a national consensus.”

Republicans also said they will argue that the Environmental Protection Agency’s ruling that greenhouse gases threaten public health is nothing more than a political ploy. And Barton said Republicans are exploring legal avenues to overturn the ruling.

“Yesterday’s decision by the EPA was clearly a rather naked attempt at engaging in international public relations on the backs of the American people,” Pence said.

Republicans are in the minority in both the House and Senate. So, their opposition to both legislation and treaties means little on the national stage, let alone the international stage. But their words could be a distraction for the Democratic president, who’s attending the conference next week.

Barton allowed that he would be traveling to Copenhagen with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), but promised he would not be "one of the sycophants."